As we look ahead to 2012, Reply’s eighth day of Listmas brings you the fads, running jokes, and popular obsessions we hope get scuttled off to the cultural dust bin.
Photo: Mike Ambs
Obama’s Tumblr
Yes, we know Obama has a Tumblr. Yes, we know we’ll be hearing about it all through 2012. Yes, we’re subscribed. Now stop telling us about it.
Photo: Barry Pousman
Hipsters, attacks on hipsters, and the defense of hipsters
We liked it better when only the cool people made fun of hipsters. Now everyone does it.
Photo: Center for American Progress Action Fund
Supercommittees
Things that start with “super” rarely are. When you throw congresspeople into the mix, it’s a sure recipe for disaster. Outside of the Justice League, there’s nothing super about a committee, much less the aggrandized posturing of this iteration. If only pre-Tumblr Obama had asked for insight. You know our number, Mr. President.
Photo: Michael E. Lee
New York Times lifestyle pieces about twenty-somethings
When The Time’s Style Section profiles twenty-somethings it finds itself writing articles like, “New York’s Literary Cubs.” So next time the NYT’s want to profile you, make sure you aren’t discussing “Kanye West’s effect on the proletarian meta-narrative of hip-hop” lest find yourself being portrayed as an unemployed extrainstitutional intellectual whose only purpose is to fuel pseudo-generational angst.
Photo: Think Panama
New York Times lifestyle pieces about Baby Boomers
(see above)
Photo: Ben Rollman
Stories about whether print is dead
It is true, the old business models of print are in limbo, but no truly sustainable new ones have yet emerged to take their place. An astonishing 2,800 U.S. newspapers have gone out of business over the last decade. But those within the industry know how incredibly hard it is to investigate and publish well-researched and change-affecting news – a process which print media has honed for more than a century. So is print media dead? No. It is only evolving and availing themselves up to new forms of media for a richer and more diverse news package.
- Photo: Laura O’Halloran
Books, articles and blog posts about “the West and the rest”
We’ve succumbed to temptation too many times in airport bookshops, picking up the latest Jared Diamond-esque, poorly-researched, bias-reinforcing exercise in banality. Next year, we hope to see a bit more balance — and maybe a few dissenting opinions.
Photo: Ralph Alswang
Thomas Friedman
We’ve railed against this cursed demon of pop intellectualism for years, much to our own chagrin. While we can’t claim to corner the market on blazing insight, we do hope that the world turns against Mr. Friedman and his brand of over-wrought, under-thought nonsense and his mixed metaphors. To put it simply, he’s just not the sharpest lightbulb in the box.
Photo: Gage Skidmore
Herman Cain
Considering how quickly the “nine-nine-nine” jokes grew old while he was still in the race, we hope the Hermanator stays out of our pop culture landscape for a spell, at least until his next book tour and/or Fox News TV show premiere.
Nick
December 22, 2011
Jared Diamond-esque, hmm? I’ve been railing against that dude since 2006. Pop-culture anthropology just shouldnt exist, and when it does, it should be done by, oh I dunno…an anthropologist! not some narcissistic geography professor who fancies himself one because he once took a trip to New Guinea. In other news, 9-9-9? LAWLZ!